How to: Stain and Paint Your Kitchen Table

This is the actual color of the table top.  These pictures are displaying it much darker
(with the leaf.  so wish i had room for the leaf!)
What you will need:
RustOleum’s White Primer- 2X the coverage (10cans)
RustOleum’s Heirloom White (used by Censational Girl) (10cans)
Dark Walnut Stain by Minwax (1 qt)
Polyurethane
Foam brushes (5x)
Trash bags- depends on size of table
Tack clothes
Old t-shirt
drop cloths
80 grit and 220 grit sandpaper
I sanded my table top completely.  I used 80 grit sand paper and after I could no longer see stain, I went over it again with 220 so that it was nice and smooth.  I then quickly sanded the chairs and table legs- just enough so they were a little rough and the primer would adhere nicely.  I say quickly but sanding takes FOREVER!  It’s the worst part of any project.  You’ll spend a few hours sanding.  Blah!
Here are some great rules to sanding.

Once you’ve sanded and cleaned your wood you are ready to stain.  I cleaned mine with soap and water and then went over the piece with a tack cloth.  They’re THE best!  You can also get some really great cleaner at the Hardware store but for the life of me I can’t remember what it’s called and my googling has yielded no name!  I used the Minwax Dark Walnut color and it’s gorgeous.  I stained it twice and it was perfect.  I had some issues with my polyurithane (last step) and had to re-sand and re-stain.  Yeah it was a total bummer.  I re-stained four times to get everything even again.  And yes I was cursing.  A lot.  In the end my table top is a little darker than I would have liked but it’s still really pretty.  Twice was perfect.  Another color I really love is Simply Walnut.  Either of those walnut stains and you’re good to go.

Stain is awesome.  It took about five minutes to stain the entire top.  You brush it on with a foam brush and you let it sit for like… no minutes.  As soon as I was done staining I started taking it off.  I got an old T-shirt and ripped it up into a few rags.  You are going to start on the end you started your stain and just wipe the stain off.  Once the entire table has been wiped clean, take another rag and just go over it one more time making sure there is no stain left to dry on the top.

You’ll need to let it sit over night and apply your second coat of stain the next day.  In the meantime though start working on your chairs.  I roughed them up, washed them and primed them.  Once they are primed you need to re-sand with a 220 grit sand paper and use your tack cloths to get all the dust off the chair.  Tack cloths are awesome- I highly recommend them.  Once they are primed and cleaned, you can spray them with your heirloom white or whatever color you have chosen.  I applied two coats of my heirloom white and each time in between I sanded with a 220 grit sandpaper and cleaned.  The last step on the chairs is to either spray or brush with polyurethane.  Totally necessary in my opinion.  It will help the chairs hold up and make them super strong.  I brushed the poly on.

Next you are going to take a few trash cans and cover your freshly stained table top.  I just taped the trash bags on and took it outside.  Make sure you’ve sanded and cleaned up the legs.  Prime.  Sand with 220 grit, clean with your track cloths and spray with your heirloom white.  Two coats.  You need to sand and clean between coats.  Just lightly.  To get the dust off and stuff.  Then you’re going to either spray or brush on your polyurethane.  I brushed.  I plan on this getting heavy use and I wanted to make my paint super strong.

TIP- The polyurethane changes the color of the paint just a tiny bit.  Ask to see a sample of it at your local hardware store.  It made my heirloom white look a little yellow.  Which bummed me out.  But I don’t think I had another choice.  If you don’t plan on using your table and chairs a whole bunch just lightly spray a few coats of the polyurethane on and it should be good.  You will feel such a huge difference when you’ve applied the polyurethane.  It’s awesome!

Your last step is to apply the polyurethane on your table top.  This is where I messed up huge.  Every project though has its set backs right?!  My neighbor told me to roll it on.  There were these huge bubbles everywhere and I started freaking out.  He kept telling me that they’d level themselves out.  Guess what.  They didn’t.  I had these huge white rings over the entire table top.  IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL BEFORE TOO!!!  I was more than mad.  I basically had to start over.  I sanded it down.  Not completely because these bubbles weren’t all over.  I sanded it down and had to re-stain a few spots.  I basically re-stained the table top like four more times to get it all even.  And it was really dark.  I was super bummed.  I really really love it still so it’s okay.  But to put in all that work and to have it be THIS close to perfect- BIG bummer.
So listen to me when I say this.  Do not shake your polyurethane.  Use a foam brush and be ever so careful when you apply it.  It’s really not that big of a deal and once I got rid of the roller brush it basically just went on.  If it becomes a little thick (if it starts drying too fast and is really goopy), use some mineral spirits to thin it out.
So there you have it.  A brand spankin’ new table!
This was honestly such a fun project.  It took a good week but there was always something to paint or clean so it felt like it just zoomed by.  The sanding and cleaning gets annoying but I’m serious, it goes by quick and you’re left looking at a beautiful new table!!  In the end this project cost me like… $150?  I thought I could get away with a can of spray paint per chair and I had to go to the hardware store like ten different times.  So if I were you- just get ten cans of each and return what you don’t use.  There is nothing more annoying than running out of spray paint when you are almost done!
I hope this tutorial gives you enough confidence to do your own project!!  You really can’t mess this up.  If you do- you just have to sand it all down again!  Good luck!

Abby Smith

Leave A Comment
Join the Conversation

5 thoughts on “How to: Stain and Paint Your Kitchen Table

  1. When you say clean with soap and water…did you just use dish soap and water? And did you have to rinse it off after cleaning it or did you just wipe it off with the tack cloth?

  2. Totally worth it. This turned out awesome!

    I’m still trying to convince my husband to like this style….he thinks the white chairs would get dirty too fast! Someday I’ll be able to convince me 🙂

  3. This looks awesome! We are moving to a cozy (IE tiny) apartment in GA in a few weeks and won’t be able to take everything with us. A kitchen table is definitely something we are going to have to hunt down at a yard sale and redo! Thanks for posting this!

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: API requests are being delayed for this account. New posts will not be retrieved.

There may be an issue with the Instagram access token that you are using. Your server might also be unable to connect to Instagram at this time.

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: API requests are being delayed for this account. New posts will not be retrieved.

There may be an issue with the Instagram access token that you are using. Your server might also be unable to connect to Instagram at this time.